Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-10-01
civilization, for the lapse of many centuries
is necessary to accumulate such results.

civilization, for the lapse of many centuries
is necessary to accumulate such results.
THE TEA PLANT.
-Of course the production of silk and the
cultivation of tea and tobacco are on a
very different plan from the rice and gram
fields | have described. The silk and to-
bacco business | know very little about,
because 1t was in the winter | was there,
although | saw something of it. Around
Kioto, however, | saw large plantations of
tea, although it was not the season for
gathering the leaves. The Japanese tea
plant is beautiful shrub about three feet
high, with glossy dark green leaves and
dense foliage. They grow to considerable
thirty years old In warmer climates, like
Assam, the varieties are much taller,
reaching seven or eight feet in height-so
| was told by an Assam gentleman on the
steamer. Tea did not seem to require irri-
CATION in Japan. l wonder the tea plant
is not grown here as an ornamental shrub,
1t is certainly very beautiful, and would
form charming low hedge, or clump of
low shrubbery to ornament lawn.
THE JAPANESE FARMERS LIFE.
One word about the farmers life 1t is
more like gardening than farming. The
holdings are very small, and the work is
done almost entirely by hand. | was told
that the peasants generally own the little
patches which they cultivate. The houses
are not usually built in the fields, but on
the higher lands, and are often grouped
together in little villages They are very
simple affairs, built of bamboo poles and
strips woven together and plastered with
mud, while the roof is matched with rice
straw-the whole of domestic manufacture.
The clothing of the peasants is of cotton,
very simple, and in summer very scanty,
indeed. Their food is mainly vegetable
of rice, if they can afford it, but if they
are too poor, barley, beans, lentils, wheat
or sweet potatoes must make up the diet
If near the sea coast, fish are often cheap 4;
but in the interior they can only be had
sailed. Meat of all kinds is an article of
food unknown to the peasant, although it
is slowly coming into Use in the cities
They all use tobacco, though very spar
ingly, in their tiny pipes, which almost all
japanese carry at their belts, men and
women too. The farmer knows but little
about intoxicating drinks, but if he ever
tastes stimulant it is sake a beer
brewed from rice, said to be dangerous from
the large proportion of fusil oil contained
in it.
DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING RELIABLE
DATA.
To show the difficulty in getting reliable
statistics on this subject, / append table
containing the annual product of Japan in
rice, barley and wheat, as given by nine
different authors, examined by myself
a and B arc taken from Legendre's
Progressive JAPAN" C and D, from United
States Consular reports f, from American
Encyclopedia; F, G and H from various
authors, and /, the last one, comes di-
rectly from the japanese Agricultural De-
partment, and is the statement which |
believe to be correct, and have used in this
article. The quotations are given in koku,
a apanese'measure-5.13 koku equals one
bushel: